You are better off trading other instruments. In my 10.5 years, I have only seen 1 really make it. I am not including myself. The rest have all been annihilated.
He was a position trader. Very well capitalized. He would make a couple hundred pips on his profitable trades. I remember that he made 800+ pips on this one USDJPY trade. I had met him at this currency trading firm in San Francisco. From what I've seen only 1% will make it. The rest will eventually fail. Most will fail in the first year and if not, then the 2nd or 3rd year. It is good that you are asking this question. Most rookies don't even ask this question.
I think the capitalisation is probably the biggest stumbling block in trading. As if, like you colleague, you have $1m to play with a 30% return is $300k, if you have $30k and are shooting for $300 it is a 1000%.Therefore you take more risk in order to increase your funds and also become less patience. With more capital you can be more low-risk and take your time. I trade a small mini-lot account to get used to the psychology of trading, but i seem to do well for a month then lose all the gains next month, so i am basically standing still which is frustrating. Are there any tips to move forward?
There are lots of tips. Here is one tip that most forex traders fail to understand. It is not important what YOU think. It is important what the market thinks. So learn to read the market. You will have to work hard. There are no short cuts to success in forex trading. So make sure that you LOVE forex trading. I have posted some stuff. So just click "posts" under my nick.
I began in stocks, moved to forex 3 years ago, then tried futures for a year, then was a prop. trader in stocks and now moved back to forex. I like forex because it needs both fundamental and technical data to trade well. The scalibility and liquidity and 24 hour markets suit me too. I use FXCM, GCI, Oanda, IB and Commerce bank as brokers and all have good and bad points.
YeahIknow, Is Fx trading the hardest instrument? probably . Do not listen to those who tell you you "should " trade FX or FX will make you lots of money . These are people working in the booming FX industry, FX dealers or affiliates, a very profiatble business obviously judging by the numbers of outfits that have popped up recently. They also have poor ethics usually. To attract the customer, anything goes . risk reward is poor in FX because there is no bias, stocks have an upward bias. Some other instruments go down faster than they go up. Currencies can go up or down in the same magnitude and at the same rate of change, remember selling one currency is buying another one. Look at JPY recently trend followers who fell asleep for a few minutes yesterday forfaited 50% of their gains ! and before I get flamed, I will say that I have traded FX still do, although have taken a break these past few months due to the relatively bad conditions. But I keep a very small account, what is left of a small account that I tripled in 2004( took the money out because i realized I was able to take advantage of unusual conditions).
Don't worry about anyone flaming you. There are very few successful forex traders. Why would 99% fail? I believe that the learning curve in forex trading is steeper than in trading other instruments.
When you say 1 made it.. or 99% failed, can you clarify the definition? In otherwords, are you only applying this statement to those who trade ONLY full-time and ONLY fx? If they fail, what is the definition of failing? 1) blow up 2) lose their account then stop 3) lose their account a couple times and gave up 4) made some money or fortune then gave up for whatever reasons 5) trade fx a bit, then switch to other markets for various reasons. 6) trade fx along with stocks, options and futures market (and real estate..heheh) All the above applies to fulltime and parttime To me, number 5 and 6 is not really failing in trading. And to me, true success in fx trading is trading ONLY fx fulltime and profit consistently for at least 3 years consecutively Same success defintion applies to other markets. (3 years might be a bit lenient too?) So if that is also your success definition, I will have to agreed with almost many fail.